• Question: While studying or working within science what is the worst accident within a lab to have happened to you?

    Asked by anon-186226 to Verity, Trystan, Raquel, Danny, Catherine, Andy on 10 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Raquel Medialdea Carrera

      Raquel Medialdea Carrera answered on 10 Nov 2018:

      That’s an interesting question. The worst accident happened to me a few years ago. I was doing some experiments with some very cool but dangerous bacteria called Staphylococcus. I was using a Bunsen Burner, that is a sort of small metal fountain that produces a gas flame. (See photo below).

      I was so focused trying to ensure the bacteria was not spreading around, that I burnt myself with the metal side of the burner! It was painful for quite a few days!!

      https://goo.gl/images/g1P4Ja

    • Photo: Danny Ward

      Danny Ward answered on 11 Nov 2018: last edited 11 Nov 2018 2:22 pm

      There are very few accidents in laboratories as everyone is well trained, there are lots of protocols and rules in place and biological materials are strictly controlled. Because of this I have never had an accident in a working research laboratory.
      .
      I have heard of some tales though were people made mistakes. We have things in research labs called centrifuges. They spin samples around really really fast kind of like the thing that spins around astronauts when they train to go in to space. We spin our samples as it makes all of the biological material collect at the bottom of a tube to form a little pellet for our experiments. The tubes we use are a special tough plastic that can withstand the force of the centrifuge.
      .

      .One unlucky person however apparently made the mistake of using glass tubes instead! As the centrifuge spun, the glass tubes shattered. Safe to safe the centrifuge was probably out of action for a long time afterwards while they tried to repair it! Hopefully whoever it was learnt their lesson even if it was the hard way

    • Photo: Verity Hill

      Verity Hill answered on 11 Nov 2018:

      I used to spill a lot of things – like I poured a lot of dry ice on my foot once, but luckily I was wearing boots and it didn’t hurt me! I’m very clumsy (and bad at concentrating) which is partly why I thought I might do better in a computer project!
      I think a common one is when people accidentally jab themselves with syringes. When I was working in a lab that dealt a lot with human blood (we worked on the immune system), there was one week where everybody jabbed themselves! You have to get tested for a whole bunch of viruses, HIV being the scariest.

    • Photo: Trystan Leng

      Trystan Leng answered on 12 Nov 2018:

      My lab is my computer, and the experiments I do are called ‘simulations’. Because of this, no bad accidents can really happen! So the worst thing to happen is probably deleting a file by mistake.

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